With all the options available, it can be overwhelming to figure out which service you should use for cloud storage. Many services market themselves as free, but some of them are anything but free. If you’re considering using a free cloud storage service, there are several factors you should consider before making your decision. In this article, we’ll review the five most important reasons why you should avoid the free cloud storage trap altogether and consider other options instead. Five Reasons Why You Should Avoid the Free Cloud Storage Trap
Reason 1: Overconfidence
When you’re dealing with storage space for your business, there’s a lot at stake. Mistakes cost money and time, and there’s no room for error. When you have a lot to lose in a situation like that, it can be easy to fall prey to overconfidence; by choosing free cloud storage solutions as opposed to reliable paid options, business owners are risking their businesses without realizing it.
Reason 2: Handouts
Why you should avoid free cloud storage is because it gives your product away for free. No one wants to pay for what they can get for free. Whether you’re a company or a consumer, there’s no point in paying for something that has already been given away. Paying a fee doesn’t guarantee quality but when you take something from someone else, quality is usually not a concern either.
Reason 3: The Illusion of More Space
No matter how much space you get with your free storage, it will never be enough. Whether it’s five or 50GB, you’ll find yourself paying for more and more space as time goes on, simply because there isn’t a cap to how much data you can use. That said, we recommend avoiding cloud storage services altogether—unless they actually cover your needs. At worst, these services are expensive distractions from your core business objectives. At best, however…
Reason 4: Privacy Issues
It’s very difficult to know where your data is stored, who has access to it, and how secure it is. The location of your data can have a big impact on data-privacy laws, and you never know what might happen in the future. Imagine that a new law passes or there’s a large-scale hack at one of your storage providers: if you can’t locate or access your own data, you may not be able to retrieve it when you need it most.
Reason 5: Choice Paralysis
If you’re not paying for something, you don’t have a right to complain when it’s not what you expected. If your free service doesn’t work well, or if it changes and becomes less useful, there are no financial repercussions – and thus no recourse. Likewise, if your cloud storage provider goes out of business, you could be left without access to your files…and with a mess of manual file recovery on your hands.